Articles by Month: September 2005

Value of breadcrumbs

Jared Spool has written a blog entry exploring the value of breadcrumbs. To quote:

In our analysis, breadcrumbs are mostly used when users lose the scent of the information they are seeking. They work their way through the navigation, choosing the links that have the best scent. At some point, they realize that they've lost the scent and now wish to back track. It's at this moment that they turn to breadcrumbs. In this context, breadcrumbs are only a little better than the back button (or links labelled "back" or "previous").

Posted by jamesr at 07:11 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

The power of defaults

Jakob Nielsen has written an alertbox exploring why users click the first option. To quote:

Professor Thorsten Joachims and colleagues at Cornell University conducted a study of search engines. Among other things, their study examined the links users followed on the SERP (search engine results page). They found that 42% of users clicked the top search hit, and 8% of users clicked the second hit. So far, no news. Many previous studies, including my own, have shown that the top few entries in search listings get the preponderance of clicks and that the number one hit gets vastly more clicks than anything else.

Posted by jamesr at 11:18 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

The web, information architecture, and interaction design

Jonathan Korman has written an article on the difference between IA and IxD. To quote:

... problems lurk behind the terms "information architecture" and "interaction design." As I said, we live in times with slippery terms, so I want to admit that I'm using these expressions in a way that may differ from the way you or your colleagues do. Though I have some good reasons for thinking that I use these terms in the most useful and appropriate way, I want less to advocate for certain language than to make clear something about two different kinds of problems that emerge in designing for the Web.

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 10:29 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Update on iECM initiative

Tony Byrne has blogged a brief update on the progress of the iECM initiative. To quote:

The working group on "Interoperable ECM" (iECM) sponsored by industry association AIIM held another formative meeting today. It's tough getting standards groups off the ground, but the group saw good progress.

Posted by jamesr at 01:41 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

A couple of things I've learnt about interventions

Shawn Callahan has written a blog entry about designing interventions, to address organisational issues. To quote:

Over the last year we've helped a range of organisations design interventions. During this time I've learnt the following: people have a strong desire to completely solve the issue they're facing and can easily move from intervention design to project planning. Interventions shouldn't attempt to solve the issue. Rather, they are designed to head the system in the right direction.

Posted by jamesr at 01:31 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Comprehensive guide to a professional blog site

Michael K. Bergman has written a guide to professional blogging. To quote:

This Guide is the result of 350 hrs of learning and experimentation to test the boundaries of blog functionality, scope and capabilities. I myself began this process as a total newbie about six months ago -- which likely shows in gaps and naivete -- but I have been aggressive in documenting as I have gone. The learning from my professional blog journey, still ongoing, is reflected in these pages. This Guide addresses about 100 individual "how to" blogging topics and lessons, all geared to the content-focused and not occasional blogger. More than 140 citations from more than 80 experts provide additional guidance. The Guide itself occupies 80 pages. It is all free.

[Thanks to IDM.]

Posted by jamesr at 01:26 PM | Permalink
Categories: Weblogs

SEO and CMS

Rob Sullivan write on some of the search engine issues to consider when selecting a CMS. To quote:

There are a few CMS which are designed with search engines in mind. By search engine friendly one must know if it support unique meta tags for each page and are these tags easily modified? Can the CMS display static pages or does it require session variables and other dynamic variables to work properly? Can one apply a customizable file structure to the system or is it set to a default? In other words, can the system organize files in the top 2 or 3 folders, or does it bury content in some long obscure path?

[Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.]

Posted by jamesr at 07:09 PM | Permalink
Categories:

Institutionalising usability: 5 ways to embed usability in your company

David Travis has written an article on institutionalising usability within organisations. To quote:

Trying to embed usability in an organisation needs more than persuasive, logical arguments. You also need to appeal to managers' emotions and political ambitions. This article describes five successful strategies that we've seen work in companies large and small.

[Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.]

Posted by jamesr at 06:30 PM | Permalink
Categories:

The future Of web design is content management

Martin Lemieux discusses the growing importance of content management systems for web designers. To quote:

This is somewhat of a call out to all web design companies. If you cannot offer content management to your clients, you may be left in the dust within a few years. The more affordable content management becomes, the more in demand it will be. Without giving your prospects this crucial option, you may lose a great chunk of your potential clients to the next web design company that has a fully automated system that states: "all the consumer has to do is login and get started."

[Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.]

Posted by jamesr at 08:33 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

The structure of collaborative tagging systems

Scott Golder and Bernardo A. Huberman have written an article that explores collaborative tagging systems. To quote:

Collaborative tagging describes the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content. Recently, collaborative tagging has grown in popularity on the web, on sites that allow users to tag bookmarks, photographs and other content. In this paper we analyze the structure of collaborative tagging systems as well as their dynamical aspects.

[Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.]

Posted by jamesr at 08:21 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

ActKM conference (Canberra, Australia)

I'll be presenting at the upcoming ActKM conference, to be held in Canberra on 26-27 October 2005. My topic will be "Understanding staff needs", looking at the practical needs analysis techniques that can be used to identify staff needs and issues relating to knowledge.

I've been to every ActKM conference, and they are always worthwhile. If knowledge management is something you are interested in, you won't want to miss this event...

Posted by jamesr at 10:16 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Time budgets for usability sessions

Jakob Nielsen has written an article on where to spend time in usability sessions. To quote:

Some overhead is inevitable in any test situation: you've got to welcome users, have them read and sign a consent form (ideally, a short one), and then debrief them and hand out incentives when the test is over. Try to keep such overhead to five minutes, then budget maybe another five minutes for collecting the most necessary subjective satisfaction ratings. By doing so, you'll waste no more than 11% of a 90-minute session. If you spend 30 minutes on focus-group-style data and 10 minutes on general overhead (courtesy of endless bureaucratic forms or the like), you'll waste 44% of a 90-minute session.

Posted by jamesr at 10:32 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Tom Davenport: Public Talk, Wednesday 14th September (Sydney)

The NSW KM Forum has been able to organise a public talk by Tom Davenport this week (!) in Sydney, details as follows:

Tom Davenport holds the President's Chair in Information Technology and Management Babson College at Wellesley, Massachusetts and is the Director of Research for the Babson Executive Education unit. He is responsible for the overall management of the Process Management Research Centre. He and Larry Prusak also manage the Working Knowledge program. Tom has written, co-authored or edited 10 books, including the first books on business process reengineering, knowledge management, and the business use of enterprise systems. His latest book is "Thinking for a Living".

Tom will be speaking at Wagga Kurri Rooms, Level 6, Standards Australia, 286 Sussex Street, (near Town Hall in Sydney's CBD) at 6pm, Wednesday 14th September (yes, that's this Wednesday).

There is no ticket cost but we will be collecting for the Red Cross Hurricane Katrina appeal ($15 for an employed person would be appropriate).

Please RSVP to nswkmforum@gmail.com.

If the entrance is locked when you arrive, please call Matt Moore from the NSW KM Forum on 0423 784 504 for after hours entry to the building.

Posted by jamesr at 10:01 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Analysing user behaviour: a case study

Chris Kutler and Ray Devaney have written a case study on analysing search logs, to understand how users are seeking information in a large repository. To quote:

The initial analysis concentrated on determining the frequency of keywords per search. The underlying basis of the approach was a commonly held view that users have tended to restrict their searches to one or two words. However, it was also suspected that when users become more comfortable with the technology or more familiar with the database's contents, they may start to construct more sophisticated search phrases.

Posted by jamesr at 07:44 PM | Permalink
Categories:

An introduction to user journeys

Jason Hobbs has written an article that introduces the concept of user journeys, which are applied when designing websites (or other applications). To quote:

Designing a website's structure around customer needs creates trust--trust in the web as a valuable space to interact with a brand, product, or service. Such a website provides your customers with a valuable first point of contact. User journeys are a method for conceptualising and structuring a website's content and functionality. These journeys allow us to shift away from thinking about structure in terms of hierarchies or a technical build.

Posted by jamesr at 06:43 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Troublesome workflow

A little while back, I wrote an article that suggested that in some cases workflow is the wrong solution within content management systems (CMS). This week I've been sitting in on four different vendor demos, as part of helping a client to select a CMS. One of the issues that came up strongly was the problems and limitations of workflow.

Their needs are simple, and can be best summarised in the following scenario:

There is a single centralised author who publishes content to the corporate website. Most of this information has already been signed off by legal, or publicly released via other channels, so the need for review and signoff is very limited.

In some cases, the author would like to show a "preview" of how the content would look to specific business areas before it is released. This is simply to build confidence that the information is being presented correctly, and that it is appearing in the desired locations of the site.

Ideally, the author would like to be able to email a URL to a "preview site" to another staff member, to get them to check the content. Note that workflow is not appropriate, as the review is ad-hoc, with different people involved in each review, and no requirement for formal signoff.

So workflow is not required, they don't want or need it. This seems straightforward, or so I was expecting.

What surprised me was that many CMS products were unable to provide a preview option, without enabling workflow. In one product, workflow was even mandatory: you couldn't setup the CMS without implementing at least a single stage of workflow, otherwise the versioning didn't work.

This has turned out to be a big problem: the assumption of vendors that we would want workflow, and when we don't, the model of interacting with the CMS becomes problem-some.

So, the message to vendors: be aware that many organisations do not need workflow. Your product should work properly without it, and should support ad-hoc preview and review as required.

The message to purchasers: if you don't want workflow, make sure you understand how the CMS will work in practice. Don't get talked into workflow just to make the product operate correctly, pick another product...

Posted by jamesr at 06:31 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Idea generation methods

Martin Leith has published a comprehensive list of idea generation methods. To quote:

This website lists and explains every idea generation method I've encountered during the past 15 years. It is the result of extensive research; my many sources include books, management journals, websites, academics, consultants and colleagues.

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 10:29 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Not all content needs to be of equal quality

One of the greatest challenges confronting intranets is ensuring that content is up-to-date, accurate and useful. In many organisations, much thought and effort is put into maintaining (and enhancing) the quality of published content.

What must be realised, however, is that not all content on an intranet needs to be of equal quality. Only once this is recognised can successful strategies be put in place to support content authoring and publishing.

Most intranets struggle to deliver consistent, up-to-date and useful content. In many cases, the overall content of the site is poor, impacting on staff trust and usage levels. Confronted by these problems, intranet teams often look to implement a range of activities to improve content quality.

These may involve:

• establishing writing guidelines and policies
• implementing standard templates and frameworks
• requiring compliance to these standards by distributed authors
• establishing review or workflow rules
• promoting the importance of 'good' content
• conducting training for authors

While these activities can certainly be beneficial, they are often applied equally to all authors, and to all content. When applied in this 'broad brush' way, these initiatives often have only limited impact, and may encounter resistance (or disinterest) from authors.

[Read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 06:03 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Don't finalise the site structure until you've created page layouts

There is a worrying trend emerging in the field of information architecture: organisations are attempting to finalise site structures without evaluating their effectiveness in the context of a web page.

Card sorting and card-based classification provide excellent insights into the inherent structure behind content. Both are excellent tools for defining strict taxonomies, but they do not necessarily generate the most approachable structure for a site. Content centred design is not necessarily user centred design.

Browser windows impose many limitations, one of the most obvious is space. Failure to consider the reality that the site structure must function in the context of a browser window, can result in the following problems:

• The site structure has too many top-level headings

  Horizontal navigation only allows for around eight top level headings. Vertical navigation allows for slightly more headings.

• Heading titles are too long

  Descriptive heading titles are best, but the limited space on a web page (particularly horizontally) means that compromises often need to be made.

These factors mean that the site structure derived from abstract exercises, such as card-based classification evaluation, may not successfully transfer to the web.

[Read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 05:58 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Conducting intranet needs analysis

The fundamental question to ask for all intranets is: what is the intranet actually for? While this is an easy question to ask, answering it meaningfully involves gaining an in-depth understanding of staff and organisational needs.

While much has been written about the design of intranets, less is said about how to ensure that the intranet contains useful information and tools. At the end of the day, staff will use an intranet if it is useful. To ensure this, there are a range of practical 'needs analysis' techniques that can be used to identify staff (and organisational) requirements.

This article provides an overview of these techniques, as well as discussing how to analyse and use the results of the research.

Ensuring usefulness

Much effort is being put into ensuring that intranets are usable, that information is quick and easy to find. As discussed in the earlier article The difference between usable and useful, this is not enough. More than just being easy to use, the intranet must provide the information and tools that staff need.

These needs must be understood, beyond simply aiming to provide a "one-stop shop for information". Instead, it is necessary to explore how staff work, and the information they need to do their jobs.

[Read full article]

Posted by jamesr at 05:52 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Just how do we create knowledge?

Denham Grey has written an article discussing how knowledge is created. To quote:

At the top my list is a community - a group that shares interests, develops a common language, builds trust, shares experiences and engages in dialog. With new tools for connecting such as blogs, IM, VoIP, web-based conferencing, e-mail and listservs it is no longer necessary to be co-located. Sharing deep insights, subtle differences and articulating experiences is easier and faster during face-to-face exchanges, helped by the presence of artifacts or exemplars and promoted when the group is open to reflection around failures.

Posted by jamesr at 11:37 AM | Permalink
Categories:

Web manager: you can't serve everybody

Gerry McGovern has written an article on the impact of adding more content to a site. To quote:

Every time you add a piece of content you make it more difficult for another piece of content to be easily found. Sure, you only make it a little more difficult. However, as you keep adding content, the navigation becomes less intuitive, and the search less effective. (Most people will not go to the second page of search results.)

Posted by jamesr at 10:58 AM | Permalink
Categories: Area Health Service project, Book & product reviews, Conferences & presentations, Content management, Content management, Design & usability guidelines, Document & records management, E-learning, Information architecture, Information management, Interface design, Intranets, James' articles, Knowledge management, Metrics & ROI, Search tools, Usability & user-centered design, Usability & user-centered design, Web development, Weblogs, XML

Recipe for a CMS disaster

InfoWorld has published a case study of a CMS disaster, caused by a lack of author involvement in the project. To quote:

The new system I was developing would be an improvement, but I knew it would take time for our users to become productive in the new environment -- and they were not known for their patience. I was particularly worried because our project plan didn't include any opportunity for interaction with the users.

Some of these problems could've been resolved through the use of requirements captured in a narrative format, along with supporting scenarios. But as indicated in the article, user involvement throughout the project is critical.

[Thanks to CMS Watch.]

Posted by jamesr at 09:31 PM | Permalink
Categories:

Enterprise content management, a core element of IT infrastructure, says a new study

Government Technology reports on the results of a recent content management survey, conducted by AIIM. To quote:

"The core components in evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of an ECM implementation have shifted. In the early stages of the document and imaging industry, labor savings and capital expense reductions were the typical factors used to justify a document solution. This is perhaps not terribly surprising given that end users at the time also likely perceived document solutions as a point solution within a particular department," states AIIM President John F. Mancini. "As the realization has spread that ECM solutions are really part of the overall IT infrastructure, the importance of productivity and risk reduction benefits has grown."

[Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:07 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management